via Korean Times...
National Security Office (NSO) chief Kim Kwan-jin may face an investigation over his role in the controversial decision to buy F-35 stealth fighters from Lockheed Martin.And so it begins. You can expect other national law enforcement agencies in other nations to at least monitor this situation, if not start investigations of their own.
Kim headed a panel that selected F-35s over Boeing's F15-SEs as a defense minister in March last year.
The office of the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs began its probe last week amid growing allegations that the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) lied about the terms of the contract in order to help Lockheed win the bid.
The agency admitted that it failed to receive four core F-35-related technologies from Lockheed, and this is expected to cause a setback for the nation's 8.5 trillion won KF-X project to develop indigenous fighter jets by 2025.
Kim served as defense minister from December 2012 to June last year. He also headed the Defense Acquisition Program Executive Committee that chose F-35 stealth fighters under the foreign military sales (FMS) format covered by guarantees from the U.S. government.
Controversy erupted following the decision to go with Lockheed because the decision came after the committee rejected Boeing's F-15SE, first recommended by DAPA in September 2013.
DAPA officials noted that the decision to reject the F-15SE was unexpected as Boeing was more positive in handing over core technologies.
More to come I'm sure.
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